Sanford Speaks Out is the latest blog sensation written, edited and produced by Sanford D. Horn, a writer and educator. Sanford will write about issues of the day covering a myriad subjects: politics, education, culture, sports, religion and even food.

Thursday, July 2, 2015

It's Called Independence Day

It’s Called
Independence Day

Commentary
by Sanford D. Horn

July 2, 2015

Bear with
me, this is more than a gripe session, but I’m sick and tired of the
Independence Day holiday being referred to as simply the Fourth of July. People
wishing one another a happy Fourth, commercials offering Fourth of July sales,
newscasters discussing the Fourth of July holiday weekend. There is a Fourth of
July on every printed calendar in whatever language is spoken in whatever
country one resides.

But, is
there really independence in places like Angola, China, Cuba, Iran, North Korea,
Saudi Arabia, or Yemen? They hopefully “yearn to breathe free,” to borrow from
Emma Lazarus’ poem “The New Colossus.”

Thomas
Jefferson, credited with writing the Declaration of Independence, summed up a plurality
of grievances in a rather brief document that helped give birth to a nation
that has stood since 1776 – through peace and war, through economic depression
and financial successes, through division and rebirth, through attacks and
rebuilding – but always knowing that our independence and freedoms are endowed
via our Creator – yes, G-d.

Founded on
Judeo-Christian principles and the “laws of nature” our nation was born under
the desire to break free from the yoke of despotic rulers seeking to enslave
the American people without proper representation an ocean away and thrust
overburdening taxes upon the people, again, without consent of the governed.
And thus the Declaration that “declare[d] the causes which impel[ed] them (us)
to the separation.”

Now, 239
years later, this nation finds itself on the precipice of returning to those dark
days of a distant government – Washington, DC – despotically ruling over a people
with barely a whimper from the majority of the rank and file.

In 1973 nine
men in black robes, in a 7-2 decision, have since denied more than 60 million people
their unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That
was the Supreme Court decision on Roe v.
Wade. With many decisions, some better than others in the interim, fast
forward to 2015 when nine entirely different men and women in their black robes
made decisions deleterious to the American people as a whole without consent of
the governed. Oh, yeah, the Supreme Court does not answer to anyone. The
legislative branch of this tripod of governance is responsible for passing and
enacting laws, not the courts. Someone missed that lecture in Government 101 on
some liberal college campus.

Within a
week the nine black robed men and women did not dispense justice, they enacted
legislation – twice.

Chief
Justice John Roberts has twice personally upheld Obamacare, which on its
surface would seem an anathema to Constitutionality. Upheld is a law requiring
Americans to purchase a product they may or may not want, often at costs beyond
people’s means or at the very least more than they paid when even a modicum of
competition existed. More money for fewer choices – that does not sound like
independence to most Americans. Not only should Obamacare be repealed, but
national competition, not just state, should be granted to ensure Americans get
the best possible healthcare with as little government interference as
possible.

A week
later, the High Court, and they must have been on a trip to Denver before
issuing their ruling in support of nationwide gay marriage, again enacted
legislation. Prior to this decision, gay marriage had heretofore been a states’
rights issue – with compliance to the 10th Amendment to the
Constitution. Once again, for those asleep during Government 101, Amendment X
says:

“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor
prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to
the people.”

By its
imposition of gay marriage on the nation as a whole, the slippery slope becomes
immeasurably more slippery. (I will have a column on this before long.) Marriage,
as per a little bestseller known as the BIBLE or the TORAH, is defined as one
man and one woman – period. Now, in 2015, the Supremes have redefined marriage
in the warped image of a group of five justices, two of whom have performed gay
marriage ceremonies and should have recused themselves from this case.

The next
test case will undoubtedly be the attempts to legalize polygamy. As it is,
there are already complaints that those who oppose gay marriage on religious
grounds are being forced to issue permits or even perform civil marriage ceremonies.
This should not be the case as religious liberty was one of the precepts on which
this nation was founded. To be fair,
issuing a marriage license, as a clerk would do, is not the same as performing
the ceremony, as a judge would do.

There will no
doubt be a concerted effort by the homosexual cabal to interfere with and
destroy the sanctity of religious entities and organizations – not just
churches and synagogues, but Catholic Charities, Chabad houses, and numerous
religious-based educational centers and schools.

There is no
doubt that religion in the United States is under attack with more and more
governmental decisions siding against the free operations of religious
organizations. This violates the First Amendment of the Constitution and
restricts the independent nature of faith-based organizations to operate in
accordance with religious dogma, and not governmental oversight.

Government
oversight is the bane of most people’s existence – massive regulation on
businesses and a tax system that is chasing businesses overseas and crippling
Americans’ ability to create jobs and ultimately financial success and
independence.

There is a
public school system controlled by government with government balking at
private, parochial, and charter schooling as a way to circumvent the evils of
the public school brainwashing, as well as language. No longer can Americans
freely express themselves without the wrath of a government entity or a
business beholden to a governmental agency passing career ending judgment.

Remember the
words of Jefferson who noted, “Any government that is big enough to give you
everything you want is also big enough to take away everything that you have.”
No need to remind the victims of eminent domain. And this should also be a
warning to those demanding more from government and expecting less via their
own personal responsibility.

As the
United States celebrates its independence, dust off your copy of the
Declaration of Independence and do as I do every year – read it aloud with your
families – several parts of which becoming vital aspects of the Constitution.
Remember that freedom isn’t free and we owe an enormous debt of gratitude to
the men and women in uniform who gave their lives for the ideal of freedom and
independence in hopes that we the people maintain ours while helping others gain
theirs.

Have a
happy, safe, and meaningful Independence Day; and may G-d continue to Bless
these United States of America.